[Source: Arizona Preservation Foundation] — The Arizona Preservation Foundation Board of Directors urges the continuation of an autonomous, community-focused Historic Preservation Program for the City of Phoenix. Without such a strong program and city commitment to preservation, the landmarks pictured in the slide show above would have been demolished or severely compromised.

In addition, Phoenix’s 35 residential historic districts would NOT have historic preservation protection nor would be revitalized and active to the extent they are today. Without the stability of these urban neighborhoods, Phoenix’s central city revitalization would be severely deterred.

Phoenix voters would NOT have invested over $25 million in the city’s unique Historic Preservation Bond Program which has rehabilitated literally hundreds of historic buildings and sites in central Phoenix.

The nationally-acclaimed ethnic heritage surveys of Phoenix’s Asian, Black, and Latino communities would NOT have been completed.

When all is said and done, historic preservation is sustainable “green” development, and development without a historic preservation element is not sustainable.

It’s not green if it continues the status quo of low-density, car-dependant cities, which much of ours do. Historic Preservation is best used on old warehouses and such that can be converted to high-density living, for example. Our “historic” neighborhoods of 8000 sqft lots for a single home are in no way a sustainable green development.

And yet most of the places in the slideshow and numerous other re-used historic sites that I’ve visited are within walking distance of the downtown core. Plus no matter how many people you jam like sardines into a new apartment complex, the cost and environmental impact of demolishing an old building and erecting a new one on the site is likely greater than that of retrofitting the existing structure. Making use of the builidings we already have also helps prevent even more excessive urban sprawl that keeps people dependent on their cars.